1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains in general to content search engines and in particular to generating alternative queries to suggest to the searcher.
2. Description of the Related Art
People looking for information on the Internet often use a search engine to further their research. In order to execute queries on the search engine, people typically search using a set of keywords that they think are likely to produce the desired information. For various reasons, people often do not choose the best keywords for their searches.
Language difficulties might cause a person to search using the wrong keywords. A person who lacks familiarity with the language of the content being searched might use the wrong keywords. Even a person who is familiar with the language of the content might make mistakes. For example, a British citizen who seeks information about temporarily obtaining a car in the United States might search “car for hire” rather than “car for rent.” The latter query more accurately reflects conventional usage in United States English and is likely to produce better search results.
In order to assist the person conducting the search, a search engine can suggest additional queries to the searcher. There are a variety of technologies the search engine can use to identify the additional queries, and each of these technologies will typically result in a large set of queries that the engine can potentially suggest. Presenting the entire set is often not helpful because many of the queries are likely to produce substantially the same results as the initial query.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a way to suggest queries that are likely to provide meaningful results to the person conducting the search.